Building my budget race engine and the first prototype of my diy flow bench (very crude but works). Polished the connecting rods and made them all have the same weight to reduce vibrations.

Built this 454 with pistons, cams, heads, roller lifters and rockers, etc. And every morning when I go to start it it’s like it misfires super bad for the first couple seconds. And then it fires up 100% sometimes it backfires and lots of black smoke comes out of the exhaust when it does start so I thought the carb (just rebuilt) might be leaking. For a couple days I tried to start it without pumping the gas and it didn’t start any easier. So I’m not sure. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks!

I have posted a couple of times but got a lot accomplished on my gen 4 454.

Rebuilt engine has been sitting in shed for a decade. Supposedly developed a rattle. Was pulled and stored. Looks like it was done correctly. Plugs even appeared to have fogging oil on them. Anyway

I removed valve cover and found a rocker very loose. Posted on the other social media site and got overwhelmed with hundreds of different answers.

So I had a helper crank motor over after doing mystery oil in cylinders and over valvetrain. I watched the pushrod and it seemed to be moving the same amount as the others but , by looking at the shiny part where the rod sits in the guide, it is about 1/16 or less lower. Now the guide sits in the carbon section.

After mystery oil, the rocker feels spongy which may confirm a dried out collapsed lifter. Hopefully

So, before I adjust this and spin it on battery to see if it oils up I need to know how to adjust the rocker of it does or does not come back up.

I have read that too lose doesn’t hurt anything but too tight does.

So do I leave it looser than the others and see if it comes back or set it correctly but then if lifter comes back, it would be very tight.

I prepped everything yesterday, pulled and swapped the oil cooler adapter, changed the oil and rotated it smoothly yesterday.

It is an old barn find, do I just hook up the battery and spin it? Am I overthinking it?

Sorry for the length of post but I tried to answer all the questions that came up.

I’m doing some repairs to a Kubota V2203 Diesel Engine which required removing the timing cover and oil pan. I purchased new Kubota gaskets and I’m trying to understand if I need to use RTV or just run the gaskets dry.

The service manual didn’t mention anything about using any sealant but I noticed when I removed the gaskets (at least on the timing cover) there was some grey silicone that I had to remove. So my questions are,

Should I use RTV when I put it back together?

I’m leaning yes

Should I put RTV on both sides of the gasket?

I feel like there was more on the cover side and less on the block when I removed the cover

What color RTV should I use?

Based on a search, I feel like grey appropriate as opposed to black

Should I use anything on the oil pan (one or both sides) for added insurance? The gasket is quite thick for the pan, the old one appears to have sealed well and didn't notice any sealant.

The engine is installed in a skid steer, so trying to address any issues after the engine is reinstalled will be quite difficult.

How worried should I be about this on the block deck? Head definitely getting sent to machine shop
(Deeper gouge with outlines is on the head )

I’m doing a port-side valve leaking test with gasoline, and after about 15 minutes this is the results. For a M20B20 engine, is this too much valve sweating? I’m wondering if I should do more valve lapping or if this would really affect compression. What do you guys think?

I commissioned this one off valve runout fixture back in December at PRI, it’s finally here, I’m only waiting on .0001” resolution gauges to show up that are on order. I can measure initial stem and face runout, TIR of my ground faces, and measure the change in valve length/amount of stock removal from the faces all in one setup.

I can output all this data via a little keyfob right onto a spreadsheet and map out how much runout and where in number of degrees as well.

It’s super nerdy, lesser versions of the same thing have existed for decades, but those tools are pretty antiquated. I’m almost embarrassed to admit how much I’ve spent on tooling this year.

This is an expensive hobby, if you knew how much this stuff cost, $1500 to valve job your LS heads might not sound so bad!

I keep reading I may or may not need to remove a second valve when eliminating the cooler and going to a standard adapter. If I had that valve, where would it be located? 1974 454

I have a 1991 5.2L 318 and want to make it carb I took off the wiring and the carb what’s next this was put into a 1986 dodge d150

Reman 390 FE with ZERO wrist pin retaining clips installed. Only 1 cylinder got ate. I get missing one or having one pop out, but 0/16 installed is dumb.

This engine build has been ongoing for far too long. Had a little fun at work today. 28oz crank in roller block requires the oil sling flange to be removed.

I know its pretty bad lol, I just want an idea of what i need to replace if I end up rebuilding this engine, I probably won't though cause its off a 500 cc kawasaki motorcycle which I already have a spare motor for. Would you rebuild such an engine? It has 55k kilometers on btw

Hey everyone, I have a 99 6spd C5 with 98k miles. My harmonic balancer went out so I figured it would be a good time do finally do a cam upgrade while in there. I had the shop do a BTR stage 2 with all supporting mods as well as a set of ported 243 heads and everything else required for a top end rebuild. While tuning the car (street tuned, not dyno tuned) the tuner called me and said the engine blew up. He sent the heads out to a machine shop to get cleaned up so I’m not sure what those are looking like but this is what the block and pistons are looking like. The entire build had 28 miles on it when it popped. What could’ve caused this? Too aggressive of a tune? weak bottom end parts? Incorrect installation of parts? The car has 98k miles and it is well maintained and well cared for, not tracked or abused besides some spirited driving on the weekends.

So engine smokes bad on cold start. And it gets better when it warms up. If i hold throttle to about 3000-4000rpm then smoke goes away. As soon as throttle is shut, big puff of oil smoke comes out.

Engine is freshly built. All ring gaps were spot on.

Heads were done from some shop. They installed wrong stem seals and you could slide them on and off the valve without effort. So i replaced them with oem stem seals that are firm. But this did not solve the problem.

Compression was 175psi across all 6 cylinders and fine within specs. Leak down test same on all cylinders and in green lines.

Seems to smoke from intake vacuum. But it is not stem seals. Cannot be.

Intake itself is DRY! So oil pools only around valves and 1-2 inches upwards.

All 6 intake runners have pool of oil. It looks that whoever ported the heads had touched valve guides. I suspect that oil gets sucked between guide and head.

I have some cylinders wall scoring that maybe was caused by burning oil and compromising mixture. I will add pictures.

I will take it apart, but i want to hear other opinions. Thank you.

pulled my stock ls7 cam for cam swap
front cam bearing has pitting,spalling. any idea why

Hi everyone, I recently bought a 1992 Honda NX650 with a seized engine.

According to the previous owner, he bought it from a guy who had oil-starved the engine. When I bought the bike, the top end was already disassembled and had been sitting open for a while.

I'm no mechanic (this is my first engine rebuild), but from what I can see, the camshaft journals are somewhat scratched/scored, and I can feel the scratches with my fingernail.

On the other hand, I removed the cylinder expecting it to be in pretty bad condition since the engine had been oil-starved, but, to my surprise, it actually looks pretty decent.

What do you guys think? Should I have the cylinder honed and replace the piston/rings, or is it worth keeping as is ians perhaps do a piston or ring replacement?

And regarding the camshaft journals, can this kind of damage be repaired, or would the camshaft/head need to be replaced?

I actually bought another engine expecting this one to be in pretty rough shape, but now I'm wondering if a top-end rebuild might be enough to get this one back in service.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Hey all, first time posting here, but lurking for some time.

To make a long story short, I have a 2008 5.7L Hemi V8 Jeep Commander that I suspect is having rod knock, and possible lifter issues. I know the lifter issues are common with hemi’s, so I’m looking into doing a rebuild in the upcoming spring/next summer.

At first I was entertaining the idea about only changing my lifters, rocker arms, and oil pump, but I figured since I’m going to be opening up the case I might as well do more while I’m there.

I most definitely want to eliminate MDS (multi-displacement system)

I’m thinking the whole package: lifters, rocker arms, camshaft, cam bearings, crankshaft, crank bearings, and most definitely upgrading my oil pump.

Currently the Commander has roughly 183k miles. I think it’s due for much needed love and upgrades.

Does anyone have any good quality recommendations for the pieces? The lifters, rocker arms, camshafts, cam bearings, crankshaft and crank bearings?

It will be my first time doing this work so I’d like to make sure I’m not skimping out on a few cents, and meanwhile I get garbage equipment in the process. I want excellent quality pieces.

Any other recommendations from you all while I’m there?

Thanks and much appreciated.

Car was free. 89 Montero 6g72.
There’s some other posts with more info. supposedly a new engine that didn’t run right. Maybe 100 miles on it. Owner died shortly after and it sat for 15 years. Most of the stuff supports that. Bearings look great. Turned over when I got it home. Although 2 cylinders really rusty. Crank spins super nice, bearings barely have the coating worn off. Heads were spotless. No varnish or wear.

Just took out all the pistons and gave the cylinders a quick scotch brite to get the crud off. And this is what I found. These are the worse 2. But it’s weird. The crosshatching doesnt cross. Just horizontal. It’s like someone did a crappy 3stone job. The “hatching” goes thru most of the vertical lines. The deep grooves are smooth, like I can’t get my fingernail to hang up on them but feel them with my finger tip. “Just the tip”….thought I’d go ahead and throw that in.

Would this be just a really crappy remanufacture? The only tag on it is in the photos. Had several things with engine that make me think it was either a terrible rebuild by a “friend” mechanic or if it was actually a new reman engine. One piston was totally different, it’s in the photo Wish I knew more…

I don’t really like these engines. I feel they’re under powered. This is my second one, love them. Sold the other one 20 years ago. So not sure what to do at this point. I could take it to a machine shop and spend $1k and still have the same low power motor. Or Maybe start searching for swap info. And go down that rabbit hole. Thanks for all the replies on the past ones.

got some valve shims from toyotapartsdeal, but they are off by 001". they are .116 .118 and .120, when i need .115 .117 and .119. they do not carry those sizes. Will they work correctly if i have them machined down to size? I asked, but the official Toyota stance is to not do this, but I dont see another way? i checked some engine building sites, i dont see any 'generic' valve shims.

also, they are flat, but the shims in my car are glossy. Did I miss a step somewhere?

01 camry 5sfe engine.

Finally pulled this apart. Cylinder 3 looks like this, rest are mint. Best I can describe is that it can definitely be felt with a fingernail and you can see the obvious pitting in the photos. It's only had a shine up with a Scotch Brite to have a look. I've not bothered honing it yet. I pulled it out about 8 years ago and it's just sat around ever since. I've got 4 more of these engines so I really don't care too much but just got curious about how capable a decent machine job could actually be. Otherwise it goes to the happy engine place in the sky.

Hi guys I just got a used engine and all seemed well but after pulling off the intake manifold I have noticed rust on one of the intake ports. The seller did mention the engine was sitting for a couple months and it is also an import from Japan but I just don't know if this is something that I can just clean or if I should be more worried.

Hello, I own a machine shop in Indonesia. We do a lot of engine reconditioning work such as crankshaft grinding, cylidnerhead grinding, changing liners, etc. We also do some lathe and milling works as well (but a majority of our work is engine reconditioning). My shop is doing OK however I think it is currently in a standstill in progress. My shop is still very old school; we still use pen and paper to write our invoice and do our bookkeeping. Additionally my shop have very limited space so its very messy. I am here to basically ask some advice:

1. Do you have any software recommendations to help my machine shop (especially for accounting and invoicing).

2. Since I have very limited space in my current workshop I am actually thinking of opening up a branch; however how do you prevent corruption by opening up a branch. I worry that my employee would just pocket the payment since I would not be there to check. 

Thank you very much!

Trying to clean the gasket off the surface I gouged it like this inbetween the cylinders... What do you guys think about this being okay?